Fly fishing alaska advice please

[Widastick]

I am going to Alaska in a few weeks. I have a 8wt rod. I will be mostly fishing for Silvers. I will be on Prince of Whales island. Any advise on leader and tipet size would be greatly appeciated. I usually fish a 2 wt for small cutties/brookies so this will be a treat. But I have no idea what to come fixed up with.
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[pookiebar]

Well what do you know I used to guide on POW in a previous life. My last summer up there was 2007.

You will need tippet in the 18 - 20 lb range if you use flourocarbon. If not flouro you need to go with 10 - 12 lb.

Take up a detachable sink tip line. Orvis has a great one, [url "http://www.orvis.com/store/product.aspx?pf_id=1R5G"]http://www.orvis.com/store/product.aspx?pf_id=1R5G[/url] I would get the fast sink and super fast sink. There are some big holes in a few of the rivers and anything that will help you get down past the pink salmon to the silvers is a huge help. Without the sink tip you will be in a pink salmon rodeo all day long.

Flies to take
Streamers - purple leaches and wooly buggers are great. Have 75% with a chartreuse beadhead. That seems to be a killer combo.
Muddler minnows in bright colors are great.
Popsicle flies in pink and orange combo are good.

Other flies
Egg paterns are good to have as a chaser behind the streamers.
Also chartreuse, red, and purple stoneflies are great in a size 10 - 14.
Egg patterns in red or orange with a white or grizzly softhackle wrapped a couple times in front of them seems to entice the trout and dolly varden really well also.

Finally I would take a few large sized humpy's and royal wulfs. There can be a few streams with some really active cuttroat and rainbows that can be fun as a mixup.
And take some really large size 1 and 2 foam bodied waking flies. If you see silvers hanging on the shallow edge of a big hole that can be a hoot to catch a silver on topwater stuff.

Hope this helps. Have fun!!

The hardest thing you will have to do is deciding which of the many rivers to fish, and finding a few of the out of the way holes. There are a fair number of people on the island so there is a bit of competition for the best holes.

For those in your party not as interested in fly fishing, spin gear with blue fox spinners are great. Get Chartreuse, pink, and orange in sizes 3, 4, and 5.
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[riverdog]

You want to look for places the silvers stack up. My favorite is Logjam Creek right beneath the falls. It's on the road to Coffman Cove. If the water is high you need to find a route out to the shallow water right before the middle of the creek. The first wave of silvers are the trophies. Any streamer will result in about a 50% chance of a hookup per cast if you get there at the right time. I've been there when almost all silvers were in the 15-20 lb range a few years back about August 5th I recall. Reports where that none where in the system the week before.You're going to need someone with a big net to help you land them or most will be off to the races.
They're supposed to be starting a 2 year project to pave the road to Whale Pass. If you aren't having much luck elsewhere see if you can't get up there even if there's some construction delays. Several creeks up there have long runs of silvers. Lower 108 Creek is my favorite. Good to get them on a incoming tide below the road or if high enough above the road. Typically 2 pinks in the creek per silver but about 75% of my hookups are silvers as they are so much more aggressive. I like egg sucking leeches but when they stack up it really doesn't matter one bit. I've used a dozen different streamers and everyone works when you find them piled up. Come to think of it they all work all the time.
I just bring a floating and a sinking line and use both depending on conditions. I use weighted streamers. This really isn't rocket science. Silvers are unbelievable easy to hook. The tough part is landing them when they're big and bright. Plenty of rivers to fish and not that hard to avoid the crowds as long as you don't want to fish the Klawock and Thorne River all day. Did manage a king on the Klawock one trip. I was casting at bright silvers among the pinks from above the little falls/ rippled drop off to below. Pretty easy to direct the fly to individual fish and mostly avoid pinks. I was surprise when one of the brighter fish turned out to be a king. I had lifted him out of the water and my brother-in-law snapped a pic as he told me it was a king. I was exhausted after a 3-4 minute but very strenuous battle and hadn't even realized it was a king yet. I've had 1 other king on a small creek up there as well. If you're lucky enough to hook into a king in fresh water they all must be released. You can target and keep kings in salt with a king salmon permit.
I use 9-12 ft fluorocarbon leader in the 12-16 lb range and skip the tippet altogether. Why do I want to tie that extra knot anyways[] when I could of had another hookup in those 10 seconds. Where are you staying?
Is this a do it yourself trip? I've attached the pic of the king I unknowingly removed from the river briefly. The steam coming through my hat tells you how hard I fought to land that little guy quickly.
Good Luck.
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[pookiebar]

That is an awesome hen king!! I hope she found a mate in there.

I always heard rumors that the natives there in Klawock were going to put kings in their hatchery. I wish they would!
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[riverdog]

I'm pretty sure they've been stocking kings out of Klawock for quite a few years now. Coffman Cove also stocks kings over there for about the last 5 years. They both put on salt water king salmon derbies. Caught quite a few out in the cove while doing some salt water fishing for silvers. Then when the tide changed we switched to halibut. That island is amazing.
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